A Car Show With No Judges, No Trophies, No TicketsMichael FosterAs with many a fancy car show, there are vehicles at The Bridge worth more than the average home. A few may be worth more than entire neighborhoods. But surveying the machinery parked on one of the most exclusive golf courses in the Hamptons, you quickly realize this is something more than the usual collection of exotica.There's a Fiat Panda parked in a sand trap. A 1973 GMC New Look bus in the fairway, surrounded by a collection of yellow Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsche and other such high-end cars with "taxi" signs on their roofs. And nobody is judging any of them. There is no Best in Show, no class winners, no trophies. You can't even buy a ticket to get through the gate. If you want to attend The Bridge, you need to be invited.Joe KucinskiThe annual event, which marked its 10th edition on September 19th, takes place at The Bridge golf club in Bridgehampton, New York, on land that once held the legendary Bridgehampton Race Circuit. A circuit where Mario Andretti, Paul Newman, Bruce McLaren and other members of racing royalty once competed. Calling the event a concours isn't quite right; calling it a car show doesn't really capture it either. So, I asked co-founder Bob Rubin what he'd call it."It's a garden party," he said.Rubin's desire to avoid judging doesn't come from a lack of concours experience. Quite the opposite. He's participated in them for years and walked away with trophies from prestigious events, including the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. But when it came time to create his own event, he wanted something different. "I always thought that judging was just kind of a buzzkill," Rubin told me.Joe KucinskiPart of that attitude comes from his approach to collecting. Rubin describes certain collectors as "trophy checklist collectors." Walk into some collections and you'll see a room full of impressive things, he explains, "but I have no idea who you are as a person." That philosophy carries into the way The Bridge is curated: without classes to fill or judges to impress, cars can be selected based on what they contribute to the larger show, rather than their chances of winning a trophy."All the cars here are pre-judged," co-founder Jeffrey Einhorn told me. "We've already selected them. They already won. Everybody here is a winner." That means a Ferrari 250 GTO worth somewhere around $70 million can share the show with a vintage Honda worth perhaps $12,000. To Einhorn, neither is more important.Joe KucinskiThere's serious machinery on the show field, but none of it is taken too seriously. "We like to stick our fingers in the eyes of people who take themselves a little too seriously," Einhorn says. "We want to make people smile and laugh."The result is something difficult to imagine at a traditional judged car show. It is also exactly the point. "We're the disruptors," Rubin says. "We're on the circuit, but we're not part of the circuit."Joe KucinskiInii and Tony King brought their Fiat Panda 4x4 to The Bridge for the second time this year. It might have been one of the least valuable cars at the entire event, but from a display perspective, it was as valuable as anything else on the course. The couple owns considerably more exotic machinery, but the Panda makes people smile, so that's what they bring."We're not big car show people, actually," Tony told me, but the Bridge is different. "You see so many different groups of people, and the car collection is so eclectic ... I just love that no one's judging anyone. That we're all just car people having a good time."Joe KucinskiCollector Richard Pineda expressed much the same sentiment. He brought four cars this year, including three generations of Porsche 911 GT3 RS and a Ferrari SF90 XX. He and his wife have attended The Bridge six times. "We do all sorts of events," Pineda told me, including Ferrari Challenge racing and European driving events. "But I would tell you—our favorite car event is this."Somewhere between 3000 and 4000 people attended this year, but the organizers say there is no intention of turning The Bridge into a 20,000-person event. Many events measure success by how much they can grow attendance year over year, but he Bridge isn't interested in that game. "The whole idea that success is measured by growth is a real problem in modern society," Rubin says.Joe KucinskiLocation also plays a key role in making The Bridge unique. There are plenty of beautiful golf courses around the world, but few are built on the remains of a racetrack where many racing legends spent time. Plus, portions of the Bridgehampton Race Circuit remain, including the Chevron Bridge. Rubin doesn't believe The Bridge would work somewhere else; the remnants of the circuit, he says, "tell a story" and "honor the sporting heritage of the site."Joe KucinskiThe old racetrack gives The Bridge its history; the cars give it credibility; and the refusal to take any of it too seriously gives it personality. Put the same cars, food, people, and entertainment on another golf course, and you could still have a spectacular event. It just wouldn't be The Bridge.If You Can Only Own One Car, Make It One of TheseThese Are the Most Popular Cars by State
